Under 6 weeks. That's all that is left between today and a 2 hour race in Beijing. Funny when you look at it like that - in a 10-week training block I'll go through about 150 hours of preparation for a 2 hour race against the clock. What else would you put that much effort into for such a small window of time! Glory lasts forever though, right?
With a few years of racing under my belt I have taken the time to think about what I am doing differently to be 'worthy' of the World Championships. You know the saying, if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. Time to shake it up a bit.
With a few years of racing under my belt I have taken the time to think about what I am doing differently to be 'worthy' of the World Championships. You know the saying, if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. Time to shake it up a bit.
It's been a great build up so far. A solid ride with fellow Beijing'ers Adz and Jimmy (that's me on the right - shame about this photo - off to the right was a glowing sunrise over the ocean!). Not sure who's job it was to keep us 'aerobic' but whoever it was should be fired because it didn't happen! Too much 'length-measuring' I think! I have also added 2-3 sessions a week on the windtrainer using 'Spinervals' sessions. This gives me specific, targeted training that provides a great quality-to-time ratio. I can simulate time trials (long high intensity efforts) and threshold sessions. While some might find it boring bashing away alone in front of a laptop (ha! that sounds suspect! What I mean is I play the Spinerval sessions on the laptop) I am feeling a lot stronger on the bike. With a new bike from Chain Gang Performance Cycles arriving sometime soon I am keen to put together a competitive bike - run combination.
I had a thrashing at the hands of Troy O'Shea (25-29 year old National Champ from last year) on the weekend - a brutal swim / bike / run session that involved 4 reps of 500m in the pool, 15 minutes on the bike and 10 minutes of hard running. Man that guy is an animal! For someone who has been working through a calf injury he ran like there was no tomorrow. Here's hoping some of it rubbed off on me!
That's the kind of thing I am looking for - something to shake the body into growing and pushing through to that next level. I have entered the Wivenhoe triathlon that is on in a few weeks. It will be a good hit-out before Beijing and a chance to iron-out any areas that need some attention. I'm looking forward to giving everyone a good run for there money - if they are going to beat me they'd better be prepared to enjoy some suffering!
If only I could ride like this guy I could continue being the slowest swimmer in the world and still rip out a sub-2 hour race...
What a machine!
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